160 pages ; 23 cm

"This accessible general introduction to medieval French literature concentrates on how to enjoy reading this lively and influential literary tradition. Rather than offering a conventional literary history, Simon Gaunt suggests strategies for reading medieval French texts, many of which retell traditional stories. He shows that although many early texts allude to oral sources for these stories, they belong to a sophisticated and witty written culture that revels in knowledge of competing interpretations of the same story and in the intellectual games that writing enables." "The texts examined in this book include well-known works, such as the Chanson de Roland, the romances of Chretien de Troyes, Tristan, La Mort le roi Artu and the Roman de la Rose. Gaunt demonstrates how these engaging stories offer an invitation to the reader to enter into the pleasures of interpretation. Retelling the Tale gives those coming to medieval French literature for the first time a clear sense of how stimulating and enjoyable these texts can be."--Jacket

Includes index

Introduction : medieval French literature and the voice in the text -- The Oxford Roland's 'oral' style -- Writing and 'oral' style in romance : the case of Béroul's Tristan -- Fictions of orality in Marie de France's Lais -- Compilation and cyclicity : the Renart and prose Lancelot -- Continuation and authorship in Chrétien's Charrete and the Roman de la rose -- Revisiting old favourites : Remaniement in Saints' Lives and the Paris Roland -- Debating Tristan : Béroul, Thomas and Chrétien -- Conclusion : once and future stories -- Glossary of terms -- Main 12th- and 13th-century authors -- Important anonymous texts in French from the 12th and 13th centuries -- Chronological table -- Index of critics -- General index

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

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